I've had to lose body fat for body building reasons -- got down to 6.5% body fat. Lost a pound a week over 11 weeks. Regained all but two pounds of muscle in two weeks.
To body builders, fat loss is a science. No gimics. No magic powders.
You count calories. You measure your body fat using relatively cheap skin fold calipers. You adjust your calories based upon weight changes and body fat changes. You don't want to lose too fast, or you'll lose too much muscle too.
You'll want a diet of about 40% protein, 30% carbohydrates and 30% fats (minimize on saturated fats, try to use EFA fats like flaxseed oil.)
Chicken breast and lean beef are okay protein. You can also get whey protein as a high concentration source of good protein.
Carbohydrates should avoid sugars, including fruits (okay in moderation), soda pop, etc. One of the best carbohydrates is something like oatmeal because of its low glycemic index. That means it takes a while to digest and so it doesn't cause an insulin spike, which would just push the blood glucose into fat storage.
Anyhow, research glycemic index for foods. But watch out. Fructose, a type of sugar, is low glycemic. But it is still fattening by a different route than insulin.
A starting diet is 12x lean body mass calories. Lean body mass is your weight minus the weight of your fat. You have to find your bf%, preferably using calipers, to find your lbm. So if your lbm were 120lbs, your starting diet would be 1500 calories a day.
Divide it in six meals, three hours apart.
Oh, a gram of protein is 4 calories. A gram of carbohydrates is 4 calories. A gram of fat is 9 calories.
